We're out of control, and cocktail sauce. Livia Stein illustrated

Italics are the crab talking (I think).


We’re out of control, and cocktail sauce


Destined to boil, that crab (I imagine)
sees me, seeing it. You make a bitter
familiar, tied to the harsh schedule in
your prison. Both of us will be better
come dinnertime. I’m not hungry. My pain

won’t be mellowed by hot buttered spider.
My wrists ache—plus all this lack of control.
I’m too nervous to wield the shell cracker.
I wish you’d climb out of there and side-stroll
out the door, through town and to the ocean.

We’re underwater. We just gotta roll—
even if it’s California. The banks
closed on the seabed, but I’ve got my whole
life ahead of me. So what? I got tanked.
Too late? Too early? Here is here is here

is here is where I am with claws and shanks.
Adapt. Bubble. Crawl—and then an arm yanks.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Play Categories, a fun creative-juicy word game (and you could win a prize)!

Image
"Categories” or “The Grid Game” is something my family played on car trips or at home. As an adult, I have found it to be a lot of laughs at parties or writing jams. It’s also a good way to stir up creative energy. At the last writing jam at my place, Jud, Maria, Janice, Rachel, Lauren, Jason, Ajua and I played. Sharing our results inspired belly laughs as well as a-ha moments. Then we used the answers we came up with as a wordlist for free writing. So here’s the game and how you can participate now in this blog-based tourney. Three sections follow: HOW TO PLAY SCORING PLAY NOW! HOW TO PLAY Create a 4x4 grid on a piece of paper. You could do this by folding a paper into 16ths, or just draw lines. Here’s mine. You’ll notice I left a little space above and to the left, which is not a bad idea. Above each column, we'll write our categories. When I was a kid, we used categories like animals, foods, girl’s names, and colors.  As an adult, I have foun...
Read more

Play Categories for prizes! Game ON: Round 3

Image
Beezo says, "Relax!" De Jackson, RJ Clarken and Phil Fleischmann all took prizes in rannygazoo round #2. The gem that really stuck with me was RJ's R-entry for "obscure words." Spending the weekend in Vegas with friends from college, I had many opportunities to use the word rannygazoo , though nobody knew what I was talking about.   If you'd like to join me in reviving the old rannygazoo , it means about the same as shenanigans .   What? You want another round? Of course you do! I do, too! ROUND THREE! (Here's how to play ). For round three the categories are: 1. Someone you would like to hug 2. Objects smaller than a kernel of corn 3. Synonyms for "sexy" 4. A complete sentence beginning with the cue letter wherein that letter is used more often than any other single letter. The 4-letter word: MELD Points will be awarded capriciously and arbitrarily based on (or in spite of) these rules: 1 point per cell fille...
Read more

Play Categories for prizes - Round 2

Image
It's Beezo, the Categories Game Rabbit! Congratulations to Pamela (PCS) and Patricia who both took prizes in round one. The prize, a signed copy of "Monster Poems" by Daniel Ari, illustrated by Lauren Ari. Now, let's start round 2!If you don't know how to play, here are the simple directions . The categories are: 1. Fictional places 2. Two names of cities 3. Synonyms of "sound" 4. Obscure words The 4-letter word: HORN Points will be awarded as capriciously and arbitrarily as before according to (or in spite of) these rules: 1 point per cell filled + 1 point for each pair of cities in category 2 that are connected by roads (i.e., you can drive from one to the other). + 5 points for the single pair of cities among all entries that have the greatest driving distance between them. + 1 point for each obscure word in category 4 that includes a definition + 1-3 bonus points for LOLs + 10 bonus points if you also submit a poem or flash fic...
Read more